Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikado463
I am curious, since you're a 'caddy' kind of guy, what is the rarest Cadillac ever produced ?
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Good question but more complicated than you may realize.
Only 3 Cadillacs were built in the first year of production 1902, the first being a prototype with an engine but no transmission.
During the prewar classic era when high end cars were often coachbuilt to buyer's exact specs, there were a number of "one-offs" however these were usually executed by custom body builders outside the factory. I know of at least one 1940 done by Brunn, and Derham was another popular coachbuilder which did a number of one-of-a-kind creations for the likes of the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts.
If talking
regular (factory) production prewar - which would include cars built by Cadillac's in-house coachbuilders Fisher and Fleetwood - the number of body styles and configurations was so voluminous, many were never even built! I'm sure there are many cases where only 1 or 2 built of a particular body style but I'm not sure what they are. Incidentally, noted restorer Fran Roxas actually created two Cadillacs that were factory offered but never produced - from original factory blueprints -
from scratch. One was a 1934, the other a 1936 (IIRC). He did have to source the frames, engines and some basic items from parts cars from the era but everything else was fabricated by hand. So accurate and correct in every detail, these cars passed as genuine among the most world's most knowledgeable experts and after being in the collection of two brothers for a number of years, they were sold for around $1M each when one of the brothers died.
Finally we come to postwar (regular limited production). That award goes to the 1959 and 1960 Eldorado Brougham with production of 99 and 101 respectively. However the bodies were built by Pininfarina in Turin Italy.
For regular production postwar (in-house) the 1953 Eldorado is probably the rarest at 632 copies.